Page 5 - Social_Philanthropy

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Chapter 1

Solidarity and philanthropy practices

1.1 Solidarity and philanthropy practices – The concept

The solidarity is a personal value that means the capacity that the members pertaining to a community
have to be able to act as a whole. It is based in the respect and empathy. It has a strong relationship with
philantrophy, as this concept makes reference to the actions that have a positive impact in the humankind.

The solidarity term has its origins in the XVII century in France, ut its expansion through the whole Europe
wasn’t until the XIX century. However, both in the antiquity and the Middle Ages signs of solidarity can be
clearly found, as the base of the members of all the communities. These communities needed the
cooperation both in the same groups and from other ones to survive and achieve a common welfare.
Proressively, the democratic governments included this concept in its legal frameworks, transforming them
into core values guiding the societies.

The word philanthropy has a deep meaning; it comes from the union of two Greek words: <<Philos>>
(love) and <<antrophos>> (man), meaning literally “love for the human or human gender”.

It can already be appreciated signs of philanthropy in the Classic Greece, in the Platon Academy, whose
ideas were very linked to democracy and liberty. However, the concept to which we are used to nowadays
was not coined until the modern philantrophy era, in the Enlightenment (XVII) (ACNUR Spanish Commit-
tee, 2018).